


Just Fan-stache-tic

by mckinlily



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura doesn't understand your earthling bonding rituals, Drama Queen Lance, F/M, let Shiro have fun 2k17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-15
Updated: 2017-06-15
Packaged: 2018-11-14 07:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11202945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mckinlily/pseuds/mckinlily
Summary: While Allura loves her new paladins, she is still working on getting to know them.OR: the one where Shiro introduces Allura to a time-honored Earth tradition at the expense of Lance. Set somewhere around the timeframe of "Taking Flight."





	Just Fan-stache-tic

It’s only been a small handful of quintents since Allura stumbled out of the cryopod and into a war, but already she loves her new paladins deeply. It’s a bit of a surprise, this deep, instinctive bond, but not an unwelcome one. It’s a rare blessing, actually, to be given people she loves so completely.

And yet.

While Allura loves her paladins, she can’t say that she _understands_ them.

It’s just that Earthlings are so _strange_. All of them are highly competent as paladins, shockingly competent given their inexperience, but they are also loud, messy, chaotic, even immature. They bicker and pout and rail on each other, getting under each other’s skin but then jumping to their defense two varga later. Their traditions are just enough like Alteans to constantly through Allura off. Try as she might, there always seems to just be one more layer to their social interaction that she can’t understand.

Start with Lance. He’s loud and open, but every time she thinks she’s getting to know him, he shuts her out, irritating her with his flirting and never letting her see beneath that. Hunk is sometimes very scared and sometimes very fearless, and Allura can’t for the life of her figure out which one is coming next. She had thought she understood Keith, who is quiet and driven—until he surprised her with loud outbursts. And Pidge… Oh, Pidge. Allura had been so excited to discover she was a girl. Someone to connect with! But it turns out that Pidge is far more interested in technology than bonding. Which is fine. Allura can hold her own in any technological conversation. But for Pidge, it _is_ only a technological conversation.

And then there’s Shiro.

Of all the paladins, he is the one who Allura finds most difficult to understand. This despite him being closest to her original idea of what a Paladin should be. Shiro’s a formidable figure—former gladiator, decisive leader, terrific solider—and yet the other paladins flock to him more like he’s a surrogate parental figure than their commanding officer. Stranger still, none of the paladins besides Keith had known Shiro hardly at all before Voltron. That he had formed such a bond with them in mere days absolutely _stuns_ Allura _._

And perhaps leaves her a little uneasy. After all, Allura is an exceptional diplomat. Personal relationships might trip her up, but reading the flow of power and influence? _That_ is second nature. And nothing could be more obvious to Allura than the fact that Shiro holds real power here. Should he decide to usurp her, each and every one of the paladins would follow him.

Not that Allura _expects_ Shiro to challenge her. If anything, Shiro has been her biggest supporter besides Coran. But she still can’t quite get a read on him beyond “perfect solider,” and sometimes…

She hates it, but sometimes Shiro reminds her just a bit too much of Zarkon.

It’s not in his mannerisms or anything so superficial. In that, Shiro is completely his own. But there’s the way Shiro can command a room by just being in it. How he doesn’t need to yell or threaten to make himself heard. How even his silences hold weight. That sense that, whatever else he might present, at his core is an iron will that will never be conquered.

Allura hasn’t told Shiro the full history of the previous paladins. She tells herself it’s because she doesn’t want to add another ghost to the man already haunted by his past. But perhaps another, truer reason is that she doesn’t want him to know he has the option of betraying her.

_It’s not worth worrying about_ , Allura tells herself for the thousandth time. She _has_ to trust Shiro. No one else can lead Voltron, and he’s good at it. It’s not like he, personally, has given her any reason not to.

Allura flicks through schematics on a datapad, trying to force unsettling thoughts out of her head while she searches the Castle for Coran. She’s distracted, though, when a door slides open and none other than the man in question steps through.

Shiro moves quickly, darting out of sight of the doorway, but when he catches sight of Allura his face lights up. He makes a beeline for her.

It makes Allura pause. There’s something in Shiro’s expression and body language that she can’t quite read, but she has the sudden impression that she is no longer looking at Solider!Shiro.

An impression that appears to be correct because Shiro catches her around the elbow, suddenly very close and very warm, and starts walking with her quickly.

“Shiro what—?”

“We’ve been talking for a while, right?” he says, tone leading and something tugging at the corners of his mouth. “About an hour, yeah?”

Allura chooses to respond to the _least_ confusing part of that question.

“What’s an hour?”

“Oh, ah, it’s an Earth time,” explains Shiro quickly. He shakes his head. “Doesn’t really matter. We’ve just been talking for a _long time_.” He emphasizes his words oddly, looking at her like he expects her to read his mind. “We’ve been, hmm, what’s this about?”

Shiro leans over her shoulder, crowding her as he peers at the datapad in her hands. _Excitement._ That’s one of the things she couldn’t read before. It’s—She still doesn’t know what his end game is or what’s got him excited, but this is a side of Shiro she’s never seen before. She thinks she might like it, but she also has no idea how to handle it. She reverts to honesty.

“This is a schematic of the Castle. I was hoping to—”

“Ah, yes,” Shiro interrupts, nodding sagely. “Very important, I see. Yes. We’ve got to make sure the training deck is in tip-top shape.”

Allura looks where he is pointing. “That is a storage closet.”

“Ah, but a very important storage closet,” says Shiro, holding her gaze seriously.

Allura’s lips twitch. But just before she can ask what he’s playing, an unholy shriek echoes from the room Shiro had just exited.

Shiro’s grip tightens on her elbow, and his breath just ghosts over her ear. “Play along,” he whispers.

Not two seconds later, the door bursts open, and Shiro goes from bending over Allura like children in cahoots to straight-backed solider.

“Lance?” he calls, voice perfectly neutral again. “Is everything all right?”

“ _Shiro!_ ” Lance rushes over to them. He looks distraught. “No, everything is NOT all right! Look at me! Look at my face, Shiro! _Does this look all right to you?_ ”

Lance shoves his apparently unsatisfactory face into Shiro’s, gesturing wildly. Shiro, to his credit, only leans back slightly, and says slowly, “No…?”

“Can’t you see it? It’s huge, Shiro! HUGE!”

It’s then that Allura notices a thin black line, starting at Lance’s upper lip, extending past the corners of his lips, and ending in an elegant, dramatic curl.

“Oh, Lance! I did not know you could grow a mustache!”

Lance lets out a dramatic squeal loud enough to hide the quick _ha!_ of laughter from Shiro.

“And now Allura saw it! Shiro, you’ve got to help me! Get it off!”

“That’s not really my thing,” says Shiro shrugging. “You’re going to have to find whoever drew it. I don’t know how Altean pens work.”

“Noooooo!” wails Lance, sliding against the wall. “My face! My beautiful face!”

“Lance, I’m sure we’ll be able to find a solution,” says Shiro soothingly. Except Allura is close enough to see the corners of his lips twitching.

_Play along_ , he’d said. Now wait a tick—!

“Shiro, this is an _emergency!_ I can’t go around looking this! I—You—How do I know _you_ didn’t do this?”

“I’ve been here planning with Princess Allura,” lies Shiro smoothly. Allura actually gapes slightly and gets a squeeze on her elbow for her lack of acting efforts. She quickly forces her face into diplomatic standard.

“It’s a very nice moustache, Lance,” she offers.

The slight way Shiro’s mouth lifts makes it all worth it, not to mention the shriek Lance gives her in return. He clasps his hand over the offending part of his face, still flailing with his elbows.

“It’s not _nice!_ It’s hideous! It totally ruins my look!”

“Your look?” repeats Shiro, somehow managing to play off his amusement as honest confusion.

“ _Yes,_ my look! Suave, handsome charmer? It’s ruined, Shiro! RUINED! Who did this? Was it Keith? I bet it was Keith.”

“I think I saw Pidge walking through here,” suggests Shiro as if he’s genuinely trying to help and not _outright lying._

Lance completely swallows it, too. “Oooh, that’s just like her, the little gremlin,” he growls. “Pidge, you’re going to pay for this!”

“Well, it might not have been her,” points out Shiro, still playing innocent. But Lance shakes his head.

“No, no. It has to be—Do you think it was Hunk? Oh my quiznack, what if it was _Hunk!?_ Shiro! Help me! I’ve been BETRAYED!”

“Calm down, Lance. We’ll fix it,” sooths Shiro, and Allura has no idea how he’s keeping such a straight face. “Do you need help figuring out who did it?”

“No, I’ve got this,” says Lance. “And when I find them—!” He makes a wild motion in the air with his hands and starts grumbling down the hallway. “Backstabbers, all of them. At least _Shiro_ is on my side…”

As soon as Lance is out of earshot, Shiro burst out laughing—no, _giggling_. He’s a strong, stoic solider, a full-grown man, and here he is _giggling_ while he clutches her arm for support.

“That was you, wasn’t it,” says Allura.

Shiro smiles, shameless. “It’s a bonding ritual.”

“I’m not sure I should believe that coming from the man who just lied to his teammate’s face.”

Shiro barks a laugh but says very seriously, “I promise you, it’s a time-honored tradition of Earth.” His eyes have that barely-restrained light again. “I could initiate you if you want.”

Allura purses her lips. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”

Shiro looks pleased she caught on. “Maybe a little.”

Allura meets Shiro’s eyes, noticing how the crinkle at the corners, and something warm and bubbly pools in her stomach.

“I believe I will decline,” she says in her most prim voice. A smirk lights her lips. “However, I believe there are a few _Altean_ bonding activities I should introduce to you.”

Shiro raises his eyebrows. “Should I be worried?”

“Very,” say Allura. She earns a quick, delighted laugh from Shiro.

“I look forward to it.”

And he looks like he really means it—in the best, competitive sort of way. He won’t stop smiling at her, either, apparently delighted she’s joined in on his joke.

Maybe he’s not so much like Zarkon after all.

Shiro finally lets go of her elbow, stepping away from her, and her side feels cold. Without thinking, she reaches for his shoulder, and his eyes snap to hers, surprised.

“So why did you do it?” asks Allura.

“Huh?”

Allura grins a little. “Why did you initiate this…Earthling bounding ritual?”

Shiro chuckles and gives her a look out of the corner of his eye, one that’s wry and maybe a tad bit rueful.

“Well, if you must know…” He rubs the back of his neck, and his grin grows adorably sheepish. “Lance is a good kid. A really good kid. But he was driving me _crazy_ in training today.” Shiro shrugs. “So when I saw him napping in the rec room, I just had to get him back.”

Allura considers for a moment before letting out her own snort of laughter. “With a mustache,” she says.

“With a mustache,” confirms Shiro, smile warm and mischief dancing in his dark eyes.

No, not like Zarkon at all.

Allura, however, may be developing a very different kind of problem.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a oneshot and therefore complete. Also, Lance is absolutely fine. After getting over the initial shock of it, he is THRILLED to have brought out the playful side of Shiro and brags about it for a week.
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated! <3


End file.
